“It is true and even strictly so that the major part of the Spanish colonists are a mixed race; this is an African feature… .”
Mulattoes were admitted to the priesthood and other posts of equality but unmixed blacks were barred. “The Spaniards,” he said “have not yet brought themselves to make Negro priests and bishops like the Portuguese.”5
Rainsford gives the population in the early eighteenth century as about 40,000 whites, 24,000 free Negroes, and 500,000 slaves, and adds, “Associating in common with, their female slaves, they propagated a people of almost every grade of color and became entirely a mixed colony in which Spaniards formed in fact a very small part.”6 However, as St. Mery says there were certain old Spanish families who shunned any alliances with Negroes and mixed bloods.
As regards the mulatto nature of the colony, a white American resident of Hayti, wrote, “The former Spanish colony of St. Domingo, now called the Dominican Republic, has, for more than a century been virtually a nation of mulattoes. In this colony large importations of slaves soon ceased, the attention of the Spaniards being drawn to their settlements on the Continent, and from the days of slavery, prejudice against color was less strong, and the dispositions of manumitting slaves were very much greater than in the neighboring French colony. Domestic relations on equal terms began early to be established between the whites and the mulattoes. The colonial laws enacted shortly after the introduction of slavery which forbade free people of color to hold offices were soon disregarded. Negroes became registrars, notaries, and priests… .
“Madion puts down the mixed race of the Spanish part at the commencement of the French Revolution at eleven-twelfths of the whole population… . The increased intercourse of the inhabitants with the Haytiens during the first forty years of the century, has deepened the complexion of the Dominicans, and they are now emphatically a nation of mulattoes.”7
Later, Santo Domingo became a part of Haiti, having been annexed by President Boyer in 1822. It recovered its independence in 1844. Perhaps everyone of its presidents was of mixed blood. The most noted mulatto ruler was Baez, who dominated affairs during the greater part of twenty-two years. The most spectacular of all the Dominican presidents was a full-blooded black, Ulises Hereaux.
The great bulk of the population is still mulatto. But it is said that the Dominicans love to think themselves a white people. M. W. Williams says, “The predominant blood in the population is Spanish though almost all have an African strain. There is no color-line but the Dominicans like to be thought of as a white nation, and in their immigration laws they favor the coming of the Caucasians.”8 This, however, is not the sentiment of the greatest man in the republic—the one who has done the most for its stabilization and development: former President Rafael Trujillo. John Gunther who met Trujillo says he “is a mulatto and proud of it.”9
FOREMOST CITIZEN OF THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.
XXX. Generalissimo Dr. Rafael Trujillo Molino, former President.
Since the Hitler regime, thousands of German refugees, principally Jews, have been brought in as settlers by former President Trujillo. In the Samana district and elsewhere are also the descendants of thousands of American Negroes who settled there during the rule of President Boyer.10
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1 Oviedo, Historia Generale de las Indias, Pt. 1. Chap. 4.
2 Johnson, C., Story of the Pirates, Vol. 2, p. 49. Reprinted from the 1725 ed. 1927.
3 Scott, .M., Tom Cringle’s Log, pp. 110-17. 1874.
4 Exquemelin, A., Buccaneers of America, 1684-5, pp. 25-6. Reprinted from the 1684 ed., 1923.
5 Moreau de St. Mery, The Spanish Part of St. Domingo, p. 57. 1796. Trans, by Cobbett.
6 Rainsford, M., Black Empire of Hayti, p. 37. 1805.
7 Remarks on Haiti as a Place of Settlement for Afric-Americans, p. 29. 1860.
8 Williams. M. W., People and Politics of Latin America, p. 390. 1938.
9 Gunther, J., Inside Latin America, p. 441. 1941.
10 Schnenrich. O., Santo Domingo, pp. 472. 170, 171, 263. 1918.
Chapter Nine
HAITI, MARTINIQUE, GUADELOUPE
RACE-MIXING in Haiti began in an enlightened and liberal manner for the times. France, although it had bowed to the evils of Negro slavery, had sets its face religiously against concubinage and illegitimacy. In 1685, it had issued from Versailles, under the seal of Louis XIV, a series of laws for the French colonies, known as the Black Code, Article Nine of which not only fixed a severe penalty on the illicit association of white men and Negro women but provided for the legal marriage of black and white and the legitimizing and the freedom of the mulatto offspring. The article read:
“Free men who will have one or several children through concubinage with their slaves, together with the masters who permitted them, shall each be condemned to a fine of 2000 lbs. of sugar, and if they are masters of the slaves by whom they have had the said children, they should in addition to the fine be deprived of the slave and the children, who should be given to the hospital without ever being able to be free. However when a free man who was not married to another person during concubinage with his slave will marry said slave according to the rites of the church, the slave shall be free by this means and the children made free and legitimate.”1
Accordingly when France took over the eastern part of Hispaniola, or Santo Domingo, now Haiti, from the Spaniards in the latter part of the seventeenth century, this most liberal provision that had yet been made in any colony became a law for Haiti, also. But its observance was almost nil. Marriage with black women, yes—the French from the earliest times had a predilection for black women, and some of those in the colonies actually had black wives; but the freeing of the mulatto offspring was another thing: that was loss of property. The law, furthermore, confined the master and other white men to only one woman, in this case incidentally a black woman, and such a law had never worked in all history. What was even worse economically: it limited the number of mulattoes possible to be born in the colony. Mulattoes fetched a higher price than blacks; and comely mulatto girls were eagerly sought. The result was that colonial life went on its accustomed way, law or no law. France and the French king and clergy were far away, and the enforcement of the law was in the hands of those whose interests it was to break it.
MIXED BLOODS OF HAITI.
XXXI. Quadroon ladles of eighteenth century, Haiti.
However, much liberality remained as there were white men who loved their black wives and mulatto children. The latter had, under the law the same rights as white people, and at first were granted most of them.
The colony prospered, thanks to the labor of the blacks. In August, 1670, Louis XIV, in a decree authorizing the bringing in of yet more slaves, had said, “There is nothing which contributes so much to the growth of the colony and the exploitation of its natural wealth as the laborious work of the Negro.”2 The soil was exceedingly rich; there was a great demand in Europe for sugar, cotton, and tobacco, and commerce was so good that St. Domingue became the second richest colony in the New World.
Its fame as an El Dorado spread throughout France. White adventurers, many of whom were impoverished aristocrats and the younger sons of peers, flocked out in search of fortune. Other aristocrats, tired of the emptiness of life at the French court, came out, too, in search of mental rejuvenation. Included, also, were